The Museum of Unconditional Surrender

An unflinching, absurdly funny portrait of life in exile by one of the greatest Yugoslav writers

‘A writer to cherish’ Susan Sontag

‘The story of a shattered life can only be told in bits and pieces’

A pink cigarette lighter, lollipop sticks, a beer-bottle opener: these are some of the contents of Roland the Walrus’s stomach, displayed in the Berlin Zoo. As our narrator wanders the city, she recalls the objects and memories, dreams and reflections that make up her life – a photo album, a recipe, a fleeting love affair – as they connect to reveal the fractured reality of being an exile.

Written in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia, The Museum of Unconditional Surrender is a quietly profound, absurdly humorous meditation on displacement, yearning and the weight of the past.